Summary
- Vernon Jones, former Democratic state rep, now Republican.
- Announced run for Georgia Secretary of State in 2025.
- Campaign focuses on election integrity and cutting red tape.
With Trump's support, Jones, who has referred to himself as the "Black Donald Trump," ran for Congress in 2022, supporting the president's unfounded allegations that Georgia's 2020 election was stolen from him.
“Trust in our elections has been shaken,”
Jones said in a video announcing his campaign for secretary of state. He added,
“Our elections must be secure. Our ballots must be protected.”
Republican Brad Raffensperger, the current secretary of state, is a candidate for governor in the 2026 election. Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and one of Raffensperger's previous top executives, is also vying to succeed him. After Trump contacted Raffensperger and begged him to "find" votes to reverse Democratic President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, both gained notoriety for defending the state's outcome.
Jones withdrew from the 2022 gubernatorial contest and lost to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins in the Republican congressional primary. Collins is currently running for Trump's support in an attempt to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Jones held the Georgia state House for multiple terms prior to losing to Collins. In January 2021, as his final term drew to a close, he switched to the Republican Party. As an African American who supported Trump's reelection campaign, Jones gained praise in Republican circles.
State elections, corporation registrations, professional licensing, and other business operations are all within the secretary of state's jurisdiction.
Republican state representatives Kelvin King and Tim Fleming are also running alongside Sterling. Both King and Jones pander to Trump supporters who doubt election security. The state Supreme Court overruled numerous significant decisions made by the State Elections Board, which includes Janelle King, King's wife.
Another outspoken supporter of hand-marked paper ballots, a crucial demand from campaigners wary of Georgia's voting machines, is Fleming, who leads a group researching the state's electoral system.
Democrats Adrian Consonery Jr., a little-known contender, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former judge on the Fulton County State Court who briefly appeared on reality TV, are running.
How could Jones’s candidacy affect the 2026 Georgia GOP primary?
Jones, who switched from Democrat to Republican and firmly aligns with Donald Trump and the "America First" movement, appeals strongly to the pro-Trump wing of the party. His candidacy could pull the primary toward more hardline MAGA voters, challenging more moderate or establishment candidates.
With a crowded Republican field including candidates like Gabriel Sterling—who has a reputation for election integrity and defended the 2020 results—the presence of Jones could divide conservative voters between Trump loyalists and more traditional Republicans, making an outright primary victory harder for any candidate.
Jones’s emphasis on election security, voter ID laws, and limiting mail-in ballots keeps the 2020 election fallout and voter fraud debate central in the campaign, energizing voters concerned about these issues.